


A Scientists Short And Successful Stay In SweaterTown

by SleepingReader



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Family, Fluff, Gen, SweaterTown, Uncle-Niece Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 00:20:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10231334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepingReader/pseuds/SleepingReader
Summary: When Ford can neither sleep nor finish his new invention, his great-niece (and Great Niece) Mabel comes to help.





	

Ford had been sitting at the kitchen table for far too long. There were parts of a machine in various stages of disarray on the table. The sky was dark outside, the lights in the Mystery Shack were dimmed already. His feet were freezing. He kept chewing on the front of his Mabel-made penguin sweater, something that only happened when he was truly tired. Stan was sleeping in his room. The twins, back for the winter holidays, were asleep in the attic. And yet Ford could not sleep. His mind kept turning around and around like a hamster in a hamster wheel, or like one of those boy-band-members on a treadmill. Just one part. Just one final part in his new invention, and he could go to sleep. But what part? His mind was a blank. His thoughts were getting darker, too. And still the answer was not there.

‘ARGH!’ He shouted, as he got angry with his thoughts. He immediately covered his mouth, hoping he had not woken one of his family members. All seemed quiet. He took his hands from his mouth, took of his glasses, and rubbed his eyes. Suddenly, there were soft footsteps coming down the stairs. Years in different dimentions had giving him pretty accurate hearing, and he could tell that these were not the slippers of Dipper, but rather the pink bunny socks of Mabel. She opened the kitchen door with a creak, and saw him sitting at the table.

'What’s wrong, Grunkle Ford?’ She asked him, bleary-eyed. He put his glasses back on and saw that she was wearing a panda onesie, with a sweater pulled over it. The attic must be even colder than the kitchen.

'I’m sorry, honey. I just wish my brain would work. I’m trying to invent something to make the house adjust its temperature with the seasons. It really is cold in the winters, and too hot in the summers. I just wish my mind would stop playing this dumb song.’

'Ooh, what song?’

'That song from the commercial we saw today. The one with the laundry detergent.’

Mabel got a huge grin on her face. She remembered the song, too.

’Laundry detergent! Go get sum! Laundry detergent! It ain’t gum!’ She sang, softly, not to wake the rest of the house.

'That one. I can’t get it out of my head!’ Ford groaned. 'And I can’t go to sleep until I know what item I’m missing! Otherwise I won’t be able to sleep!’

'Well… Have you tried going to SweaterTown?’ Mabel asked

'What's… “SweaterTown”’

'Oh, it’s a place where I go when I feel bad about something. It makes you forget stuff, I guess?’

'O-kay…? And how do you get to SweaterTown?’

'Like this!’ Mabel proceeded to sit on the floor, put her sweater over her knees, pull her arms in, and duck her head into her sweater. Her muffled voice came out of the wool.

'Try it, Grunkle Ford! You’re a scientist, right? Try it for science!’

Feeling very stupid, Ford sat on the floor of the kitchen, pulled his Mabel-made penguin sweater over his knees, pulled his arms in and ducked his head into the sweater.

The world went soft.

All of his thoughts, which had been dancing around before to the tune of the Laundry Detergent song, fell silent. The sounds of the night-creatures out in the forest were muffled enough not to hear them. The world stopped mattering so much. The only smell that was there was the smell of wool, himself and of the cinnamon that had spilled on his sweater at dinner that night. It was warm and peaceful. He could hear Mabel breathing beside him, but that was okay, she was in SweaterTown herself.

And suddenly one shy little thought, that had been overruled by the others, came to the front of his mind. He saw that THAT screw should twist THAT way, and that the part that he thought was so necessary was of no use at all in his invention. He stuck his head outside the sweater, wonder in his eyes, to find his great-niece, and also, he thought, his Great Niece beaming at him.

'Told you it worked’ She said, before he tackled her in a hug. He held her for a moment, whispering ’Thank you’ and planting a kiss on her head, before standing up, hurrying back to the kitchen table, and finishing his machine in only 5 minutes, while Mabel cheered him on. He finished it, Mabel put a sticker on it, and they both fell asleep on the couch, the entire shack now comfortably warm.

The following morning Ford asked Mabel for five other sweaters to go to SweaterTown in. He and Stan had a long journey to go, after all.

Mabel made him six.

**Author's Note:**

> I came in the Gravity Falls fandom exactly one year too late. I hope it's still alive enough for someone to read this fic and have a better day? Life? Stay in SweaterTown? It's 2:30 here, give me a break. ;)
> 
> This story is from my own experience in SweaterTown this evening (FOR SCIENCE). I can confirm that it is indeed a very good method for quieting one's thoughts. 
> 
> Comments? Questions? Let me know!


End file.
